Runtime Ruse
by Geuse
Summary: In the wake of political disarray and violence in Mantle, our three unoccupied heroes are forced to make a choice; it's either a political rally, or the movies. Luckily for them, none of them are linked to frontrunner election candidates, family legacies, or centuries old beings, so they're free to lie back and enjoy the show - the age-appropriate show, that is.
1. Runtime

**SPOILERS : **Clearly, for V7E6 : A Night Off. Not major spoilers though, just a small plot point regarding three movie-goers.

* * *

At first, there were two; a knight and a farmboy, and their goal was simple - watch a movie. Then, there were three; a knight, a farmboy, and an heiress, and their goal was simple - watch a movie that was appropriately age-gated but entertaining enough to satisfy all three, and whose runtime would exclude them from the election night.

If Jaune was being honest with himself, he hadn't expected anyone from the array of Team RWBY to accept his offering of going to the movies, least of all Weiss Schnee. But, Ruby was with Penny and Blake and Yang were going dancing with FNKI, so he guessed that Weiss saw something worthwhile in going to the movies with him than sitting in her dormitory - or the library - completely alone.

Correction - movies with him _and _Oscar. They were bringing a child along after all, so now, instead of it appearing like an unfortunate outgoing between two teenagers, they looked like babysitters.

"No adult themes, no severe gore, no severe language..."

Jaune glanced to his right. "So what is Oscar allowed to see?"

"Reserve Dogs?" Oscar asked.

"No!" Weiss implored. "It says 18 right there, in a red box. It's probably got every inappropriate theme known to mankind in it."

Oscar slumped and turned to complaining. "My legs are getting tired, can we just watch something?"

Jaune crossed his arms and glared at the screening schedule. "How old are you again?"

"Fourteen."

The blonde's eyes narrowed. "How old is Ozpin?"

"I don't know, like, four hundred years old?"

Jaune looked triumphantly at his two compadres. "Well, you're fine then! You two share a mind, no problem."

"It doesn't really work that way-"

Weiss was, of course, having none of it. "Jaune, I am not watching a movie with our old headmaster." She grimaced. "And what are you going to say to the staff? 'Don't mind the small child, he's actually got a centuries old headmaster in his head so yes, he _can_ watch this eighteen rated movie that involves drug abuse and murder.'?"

Jaune looked at Weiss in confusion. "No, I'd just have Ozpin speak and tell the staff he's a very small, young looking man."

"Ozpin doesn't really come out anymore. Remember?" Oscar looked up at Jaune in question.

His face flashed with realisation. "Right. Doesn't speak, does he?" With that, he returned to the screening schedule and scanned further.

The trio stood in silence for a moment, until Jaune spoke up, still scanning. "How about, Atlesian Psycho?"

Weiss groaned. "Do you know what words mean Jaune? Do you understand semantics?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you think 'Atlesian Psycho' means? Do you think it's child-friendly?"

"I'm not a child."

"It's just a guy who's gone mad, can't be that bad. Probably lost his keys or something." Jaune answered carelessly.

Weiss chuckled through a breath and squinted sarcastically at the plasma screen where the cover for the film was projected. "I could've_ sworn_ he's holding an axe in his hands and... Oh! Would you look at that? He is as well! And it's even covered in blood for that extra touch of 'this movie is for adults'."

Jaune thinned his lips and stood up straight. "Okay, he is holding an axe. I didn't see that at first."

"You didn't see it?"

"I was looking at the big red letters in the title, Weiss! That's what they're there for!" Jaune was pleading now, melting under Weiss' cinematographic interrogation.

"Can you two stop arguing? You're embarrassing me."

"Be quiet, Oscar, we're treating you to a movie. Be happy we didn't leave you in the academy." Weiss dismissed him, eyeing the plasma screen.

The farmboy slid his hands into his pockets. "I was going to the movies with Jaune before you were, and I could probably be watching a movie by now if I was infront of the TV instead anyway."

"Got it!" Jaune announced, rubbing his hands together in glee that he had, from all angles, bested Weiss.

"What? Which movie?"

"Not telling, it's a surprise."

Weiss crossed her arms. "I don't like surprises, Arc, tell me the movie. We have a fourteen year old boy with us."

"Relax, Weiss."

"Arc."

Jaune looked frozen for a moment as he stood off with Weiss.

"Please don't argue again." Oscar whined, closing his eyes.

"Okay! You got me." Jaune released the breath he was holding, throwing up his arms in surrender. "It's League of Air One."

Weiss' eyebrow rose, and she darted round to search the screen again.

"It's about..." Jaune squinted at the row of text that sat in the very bottom right-hand corner of the schedule. "An all-female air cadet team, or something. 13-rated, no psychos or gangsters... at least I don't think so."

Weiss stood still as she watched the cover of the movie scroll across with the others. Jaune was right, no one was holding a bloodied axe on the cover and no one was snorting cocaine, so it seemed safe enough, and the 13-rated box on the bottom left assured her that it was further. The premise was something Weiss could sit through too. Okay, she'd agree with him, this once.

"That's sounds pretty good." She looked to Oscar, who looked like he was about to keel over and die on the spot from muscle fatigue. "What do you think?"

"Is it a movie?"

"Yes."

"Is there sound, do things move on the screen?"

"Yes."

"Will you get us VIP seats?"

Weiss and Jaune looked at each other.

"Yes."

The farmboy smiled with a haze in his eyes.

"Sounds good."

* * *

"Is this much sugar safe for a child?" Weiss asked, eyeing Oscar's collection of candy floss, popcorn and chocolate that was held dearly in his arms.

"Not a child."

Jaune scoffed. "It's fine, I used to eat tons of sugar. Never hurt me."

Weiss raised her brow in question and smirked, shaking her head. "Well, don't have it all, Oscar, you're sharing that." She looked back to Jaune. "Why are you wearing those stupid sunglasses?"

He lowered them from his eyes slightly. "There is nothing stupid about them, Weiss. They are cool, they make me... fresh."

She only laughed at him. A sweet laugh, like candy, something that caught Jaune off guard. She jabbed her finger at the side of the glasses. "You have the price tag still attached, you look like a thief."

Jaune only smirked confidently at her in the wake of making her laugh, though his scratching fingers at the side of the sunglasses that were trying to pry the tag off said otherwise. "All the more topical. It was a promotion item for Reserve Dogs at the desk. Thought I'd buy them to add a touch to myself."

"A touch?"

Jaune spread his arms out and leant back in display of himself. "Well? Do I look good?"

Weiss squinted her eyes at him. "You look alright if I do this." She nodded. "Well, apart from the fact you're wearing sunglasses indoors, at night, in the one kingdom that gets the least sun in Remnant." She shrugged and shook her head this time. "You look alright."

_'Alright? Who does she take me for?' _"Told you, they suit me."

The heiress's smile dropped. "Okay, but please take them off now, I'm not walking into the viewing with you looking like that. And neither is Oscar."

"She's right." The farmboy, whose mouth was half filled with pink cloud, added.

Jaune looked between the two and sighed in defeat. "Fine. Fine, they'll come out if we got to Vacuo, or something."

Weiss smiled, the quips between the two egging her along. "Or if you take part in an armed robbery?"

Jaune pointed with the sunglasses in hand. "Or that."

* * *

If Weiss was being honest with herself - and only herself of course, as she dreaded to find herself being wholly honest with anyone else - she had enjoyed the viewing a bit further than she had expected. Despite having to race Jaune while eating the popcorn to ensure she actually got any, and the fact Oscar ended up hoarding the chocolate all to himself in the end (for reasons only laid out in the unnerving words of 'this is your reparation to me'), the nearly two-hour runtime had flown by and Weiss now found herself, as she walked out of the viewing with a scrumpled plastic bag and drinks holder, smiling in the afterglow of the film.

If Weiss was being honest with the devil over her shoulder, she was aware that Jaune had clearly changed, and was now, to the heiress, a great deal more... comprehensible. Though just as insufferable, although that hadn't shown any problem in her memory as of recent. It was good fun to pity him.

"So, what'd you think of that, Oscar? Worth it?" Jaune bumped him with his elbow in jest, though nearly knocked the boy off his legs.

Oscar, who was now dazed with sugar and close to vomiting both his guts and Ozpin's soul up, managed a meagre response. "Yeah, real good."

Jaune perked up at Oscar's positive response. "Weiss?"

She turned around to face the two. "It was good." She pondered. "Tasteful."

"Tasteful?" He looked at her with a lost expression. "That was a movie, not... dinner." Once had Jaune realised his slip up, he smiled to himself in unraveling embarrassment. "Not to say I asked you to a movie, it was more of a me and Oscar thing, then..."

Weiss raised an eyebrow. "So I was an extra?"

"No, well, no-"

"So?"

Jaune paused. "Well, it was out of courtesy really-"

The sickly boy looked up and pointed somewhere inbetween the two blurry figures. "Aren't you two dating already?"

Jaune looked at him in betrayal. "No?"

"Shut up, child." The other dismissed.

His nausea frowned at Weiss. "I'm not a child." He pushed his hair from his forehead and took a seat on a bench nearby. "You two argue like a couple, could trick me."

Weiss looked back to Jaune with an uneasy feeling in her chest. She was going to leave now, before she got tangled in something that Yang would find out about, and not let go of.

"I appreciate your courtesy, Jaune. I had a nice time." She fumbled through her pockets and pulled out her scroll, and looked at Oscar's sloshing expression. "You should check on him, I'll call us a taxi." And with that, she left with a smile.

Oscar sighed. "Gee, really has to be about her, doesn't it?" He glanced at Jaune. "Do we have to bring her next time?"

Jaune sat down next to the boy and slid down the bench in fatigue. "Be quiet, Oscar."

"What?" He swallowed the uneasy feeling in his chest, he didn't like the tentative look on Jaune's face. "You aren't going to ditch me, are you? For her?" Jaune remained silent and twiddled his thumbs in his lap. "Do you two have a history of this or something?"

Jaune hummed in his place, finally speaking. "You have no idea."


	2. Courtesy

**/****/ - **A second part does come this way, though had some problems updating the story. Just a final bit to add to the story, because I felt the previous one maybe didn't do Weiss and Jaune's dynamic enough justice. Besides, it's fun to write the two, and thank you for the kind words on the first chapter.

* * *

"How is he?" Weiss asked, massaging the fatigue under her eye with a hand.

Jaune only shrugged, trotting from the toilet exit to sit next to Weiss. "Getting better, told me to wait outside; he'll come out when he's ready to go." He smirked in contemplation. "Not that I'm complaining. I'd rather not watch his gastrobatics, makes me feel sick too."

Weiss grimaced and looked away from him. "That's a disgusting term, Jaune."

"What? Gastrobatics?"

"Don't!-"

He only laughed at her discomfort. "What? I thought that was pretty good. Came up with it on the spot, I did."

Weiss shook her head and sunk further into the cushioned bench situated outside the market toilets. "You know, the taxi driver said he's going to charge me double for our little stop."

Jaune raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Why?"

"Because we're wasting his time, why do you think?"

"I dunno." Jaune shrugged, opting to hit a joke out again to lighten the mood. "Maybe he's just in it for your name." Jaune grinned at first, bit when Weiss didn't respond, and a sterner swirl came to those ice-blue eyes of hers, Jaune realised he'd hit a nerve. "Sorry. Bad joke."

"Bad line." She countered. "It wasn't even funny."

Jaune sighed and laxly held his arms half-up in surrender. He'd lost count how many times he'd capitulated to Weiss today. "Okay, you don't have to grill me about it, jokemeister."

She shifted away from him in the seat. "Just think before you speak."

He nodded. "I'll try."

A stark silence pondered between the two, and the minimal hustle and bustle of the near empty shopping market began to leer over them. The silence didn't do much to calm Weiss, and the storm of fatigue and insecurity inside herself made her speak again.

"Do you think it _is_ because of my name?" She muttered to Jaune.

He only looked at her with a look of disbelief, and saw this time that the ice-blue swirl had turned unsure. He was quick to reassure her, being the casanova he was. "Pfft, no." He laughed to faux confidence. "Probably doesn't even recognise you."

Weiss didn't buy his reassurance, again, and Jaune's efforts fell flat. "Everyone recognises me, Jaune. I'm a Schnee."

Jaune changed tactics. "Okay." He slumped down the seat, taking a breath. "Well, of all the people in Mantle, Weiss, I don't think a taxi driver - who is probably just trying to make ends meet, and thinking about his family - is going to exploit you for money." He suggested, looking to the girl. "How much is the fare, anyway?"

"Twelve for there. But it's going to be twenty-four for our little stop."

"Alright, well we can pay halves then."

Weiss glanced at Jaune in doubt. "Don't play gentleman with me, Jaune."

He raised an eyebrow. "I'm not gentlemanning you, Weiss. I'm being polite."

She nodded in mockery. "Right, so, what? Are you going to serenade me about the fare next?" Weiss smiled at first, though dropped it like hot potato when she realised she had hit a nerve.

Jaune thinned his lips in response, and emulated Weiss' previously bad mood. "Bad line, Weiss." He shook his head and tried to contain his laugh. "Not funny."

Weiss could see straight through his play and saw the mirth in his eyes, knowing he was laughing to himself. She punched him in the arm to relief the pent up mix of awkwardness and giddiness in her chest and even laughed herself. "Oh, shut up Jaune."

Jaune was on fire today. He'd made her laugh at least twice. "You know, I think they sell guitars here. I could give it a go-"

Weiss' eyes widened in horror and she cut him off. "Don't you dare, Arc! I'm not going through that again."

Jaune cackled. "I'm not putting myself through that again. No need to panic."

Weiss crossed her arms in her embarrassment, almost hugging herself. "We don't speak of your stupid showmanship again, to anyone. Okay?"

He nodded. "Okay. Deal."

Weiss shifted back along the seat toward Jaune. The market was near freezing now, and she could feel the blood rushing from her fingertips. Distracting herself from the cold, she mused over Jaune's name, and wondered if he had ever felt any pressure over his own family. There was a huge statue of an ancestor of his in Beacon's courtyard, after all, and his sword was a legendary heirloom, or something.

"Y'know, sometimes I feel unsure about my family, and what I should be doing with the legacy."

Weiss swallowed in surprise as Jaune happened to read her thoughts. "What like?"

He shrugged. "Well, I pretty much ran off with the family heirloom and jumped into an academy without notice." He paused for a moment, then spoke a little more. "Could've been different."

"Different?"

He swallowed. "Well, maybe if I'd tried myself harder. I could be in a better place to... fulfill my name."

Oh, he was having inheritor's guilt. Well, that was very last year for Weiss. Very untrendy, Jaune. "You shouldn't be worrying about something like that." She shrugged. "I reckon you'd struggle to find an Arc that's gone through all you have in the span of two years." Her eyes drooped slightly and she stifled a yawn. "You're just a different legacy."

He looked at her in surprise and smirked, laughing a breath. "Didn't expect you to hit me with that, Weiss. Bit intense, don't you think?"

The yawn broke, her eyes widening as he discarded her words as humorous. "I was being supportive, you idiot. You sounded really sad!"

"I was saying the name thing to reassure you."

"Didn't sound like it." She snarled.

Jaune only smiled, deflecting her malice. "Good to know you care about me, Weiss."

The girl raised an eyebrow in pity. "I've known you for a while, Jaune. I would hope I did." She stretched as her exhaustion took over, taking her admittance that she cared for him as a ticket for using him as a pillow. "Now let me lean on you, I'm tired and cold."

Jaune looked over in surprise as Weiss sat up against his side, resting her head along his shoulder. Her hair tumbled across and down his shoulder and back, and he was hit with the intoxicating scent of shampoo. He nearly choked in his shock. "Comfy?"

Weiss replied in nonchalance. "Yes." With that, she closed her eyes for at least a few minutes rest.

* * *

It was a different seating arrangement in the taxi this time; Oscar now sat in the middle to separate the two older, more awkward ones of the moment.

"So you two are dating."

"No."

"But she was asleep on you. I saw you two." Oscar insisted. "She practically ran off when she woke up."

"She was resting her head."

Oscar looked over to Weiss, who had now fallen asleep in the taxi aswell. He turned back to Jaune. "I hope your betrayal is worth it, Jaune."

"Betrayal?"

Oscar hummed. "Well, I'm not going to the movies with you two again, I'll just end up a third wheel."

Jaune didn't say anything, instead taking out his scroll to distract himself.

"I saw a nice restaurant as we were walking out of the cinema, you could take her there."

Jaune shifted in his seat. "I'm not taking her on a date."

Oscar sighed. "Well, that's very anticlimactic of you, after all that romantic tension from tonight."

Jaune jabbed a finger at Oscar. "I don't need dating advice from you. You're a child, you don't understand."

Oscar frowned. "I'm not a child. You're being more of a child than me."

Jaune raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Well, this child is paying for the taxi fare home, so I'll willingly have you kicked out onto the street if you don't shut it."

Oscar felt his stomach churning again, and chose not to argue with Jaune in his discomfort. "Fine. Just saying you two have something. Maybe Weiss will ask you on a date."

"Maybe she will." Jaune rebutted.

A conversational silence passed as the hum of the engine flowed into ambience. However, after less than a minute, Jaune's confidence cracked.

"Dust, she'd never ask me on a date."

Oscar grinned, clutching his stomach. "Told you." He relaxed his head into the cushion. "Just ask her. Aren't you the one who said girls love confidence, or something?"

Jaune narrowed his eyes at the boy. "How'd you find that out?"

Oscar shrugged. "Ruby told me."

Jaune swallowed in the sting of treachery. "Right." He pondered for a moment. "You think dinner's alright?"

"I don't know, I'm just a child."

"Oscar. Don't."

He narrowed his eyes in bewilderment. "Just ask Ruby, she knows Weiss well."

"Oscar, asking Ruby means Yang will somehow find out. The last thing I need is having Yang know I'm taking Weiss on a date."

The farmboy was enjoying this. "You don't even know if she wants to yet."

"I'm being hypothetical." Jaune defended.

His advisor shrugged. "Just put some effort into whatever it is, and I'm sure she'll enjoy herself."

Jaune nodded. It made sense, if Jaune showed some bother, then Weiss would, at the very least, be impressed with him. "Right. You're right."

"I am?"

"Well, it sounds sensible enough."

Oscar nodded in his success, and leaned into his seat, drifting into rest alongside Weiss.

Oscar was right, the least Jaune could do was take her out somewhere after tonight. He felt different with Weiss now, like she saw him in a new light; like he had a chance. He saw Weiss in the same light as always, of course, one of admiration and care - and maybe a hint of infatuation with her demeanour, but he felt like Weiss valued their time now, and it would be worthwhile spending more of it.

Besides, a date would be... courtesy. And Weiss appreciated that.


End file.
